Whether it's cash in hand or borrowed dollars, your properties are constantly faced with competing demands on scarce resources. These financial pressures can keep you from replacing an old, unreliable, repair-intensive, under-performing ch…

Like many questions, the answer is "it depends." Many people think about a 20- or 30-year-old boiler the same way they think about a 10- or 15-year-old car: "It might need to be replaced soon, so I won't spend much money on it. I'll just …

In the legendary musical Anything Goes , the character Reno wants to be taken back to Manhattan or as she calls it "my dear old dirty town." In the last decade, New York has cleaned up its act, but Reno had it right - it's still a d…

From the venerable Dakota on the Upper West Side to the small-but-fashionable antique brownstones in the Village, to the formidable New York Public Library, hundreds of buildings in Manhattan and the outer boroughs have been designated his…

There's nothing worse than bad lighting. Take an otherwise beautiful room and illuminate it with the wrong kind of light - whether too dim, too bright, too hot, too cold, too pale, or too bleak - and the mood, feeling, and livability of th…

Shopping is not a spectator sport. At almost any level, from books to stocks to brokers, it involves fulfilling desires, meeting needs, negotiating price and choosing suppliers. There is no guarantee of success, and as the price of the pur…

1. Prudential Douglas Elliman (acquired Douglas Elliman) , 2,400 agents, Manhattan, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Long Island and The Hamptons, Total Sales Volume: $6.5 Billion. 2. Terra Holdings, (Brown Harris Stevens, Halstead, Halstead/Fe…

Everyone knows the air in New York isn't the best stuff in the world to breathe. But what most people don't know is that the indoor environment is often more polluted and toxic than the world outdoors. In fact, a recent EPA study found tha…

Co-op and condo boards often become involved in disputes with contractors and subcontractors who perform work either on the building's common areas, or within individual apartments for a shareholder or unit owner. A mechanic's lien and lie…

What do you call an organization whose membership includes property managers, plumbers, electricians, security companies, glass specialists and attorneys? You call it diverse, far-reaching, and multifaceted - but you could also call it the…